KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia remained in the red at mid-afternoon as market sentiment remained weak following the negative overnight performance on key global markets.
At 3.10 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) erased 21.31 points or 1.66% to 1,259.32 from Monday’s close of 1,280.63, after opening 63.35 points lower at 1,217.28 this morning.
On the broader market, losers edged gainers 788 to 190, with 229 counters unchanged, 809 untraded and 17 others suspended.
Turnover amounted to 3.16 billion shares worth RM2.46 bil.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,997.10 points, or 12.9%, to settle at 20,188.52, which saw circuit breakers temporarily halt trading for 15 minutes, amid rising fears that fresh Federal Reserve stimulus would not be enough to combat the threat of lost jobs and wages from the COVID-19 outbreak.
The S&P 500 index declined 324.89 points, or 12%, to end at 2,386.13 while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 970.28 points, or 12.3%, to finish at 6,904.59.
Meanwhile, a dealer said some traders were taking advantage of the current low prices, following yesterday’s selloff, to accumulate quality stocks such as Nestle, PPB Group and Dialog.
Nestle added RM1 to RM134.20, PPB Group gained 30 sen to RM16.30 and Dialog rose six sen to RM2.86.
Among other heavyweights, Maybank was one sen higher at RM7.30, Tenaga declined four sen to RM11.26, Public Bank decreased 38 sen to RM14.12 and IHH went down 25 sen to RM4.75.
Of the actives, Sapura Energy inched down half-a-sen to nine sen, Hibiscus Petroleum was flat at 30.5 sen and Bumi Armada added half-a-sen to 14 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index erased 167.39 points to 8,621.97, the FBM Emas Shariah Index dipped 140.21 points to 9,370.12 and the FBM 70 shed 236.89 points to 9,866.82.
The FBMT 100 Index gave up 157.67 points to 8,550.84 and the FBM Ace depreciated 190.88 points to 3,590.89.
Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index inched down 2.24 points to 101.44, the Plantation Index decreased 164.48 points to 5,671.89 and the Financial Services Index gave up 271.35 points to 11,623.94. – March 17, 2020, Bernama
